I’m about to make my first-ever cheesecake (pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap-pecan crust) – the recipe doesn’t say anything about greasing the pan. Do I or don’t I?
off to crush the gingersnaps – back in five
Nope.
Great, thanks.
Note to self: avoid recipes that involve crushing large numbers of hard cookies, since you don’t have a food processor.
Wrap them in a tea towel, tie the tea towel firmly, then smack it hard off walls and work surfaces; you can even jump in it if you want. When suitably smooshed, smash the hell out of the remaining lumps with a rolling pin - then open the tea towel for cookie crumb goodness. Takes about 2 minutes and is therapeutic too.
I used a couple of zip-lock bags and a big jar of peanut butter (heaviest thing I could find that I could conveniently hold). They’re not fine crumbs, but they’re fine. 
Elsewhere in the cheesecake news, I blew out the hand mixer creaming the cream cheese and sugar together, so the pumpkin and eggs got mixed in by hand. Bummer – I was also supposed to make the mashed potatoes, guess we’ll have roasted instead.
Line your spring form pan with parchment for easy removal. I usually put the bottom piece of the pan on a piece of parchment then score around the edge with the tip of knife and remove the excess parchment (this gets you a perfectly round piece of parchment). Then, for the sides, I cut two strips of parchment roughly the height of the sides. Put the pan together, spray it lightly with non-stick spray, and put the parchment strips in place. The little bit of spray will hold the parchment in place.
Put in your crumbs and blind bake it, let it cool, then pour in the filling and bake. When the cake is done and has cooled down, run a warm butter knife between the parchment and the pan, then release the pan and remove the sides and peel the parchment off the cake. Then slide the cake off the pan bottom, leaving the parchment under the cake.
Just because I want to confess and I’m too embarrassed to open a whole thread: I ruined an entire batch of chocolate chip cookies yesterday because I substituted butter-flavor Crisco for butter 1 to 1. They melted flat into disgusting oily goo. :smack::smack::smack: Which didn’t stop some family members who shall remain nameless from eating a few. Groooooosssssss.
But my apple pies are awesome.
Back to cheesecake.